Faux News
I've made a delightful discovery which is bound to provide unlimited future mirth. It's called the Fox News homepage. Why have I denied myself the pleasure of this site for so long?
What's odd, actually, is that I read quite a lot of on-line news from different sources, usually following where the news aggregators wind blows me. So Fox News stories don't end up in aggregators. I wonder why?
Looking at the site is like reading a newspaper on acid. There's the laughing face of Hillary Clinton under the headline: "NO LAUGHING MATTER." It's a "news story" about Clinton accepting bad money from Algeria or something. Why did they match a laughing Hillary pic with this story? Are you kidding?
Every "news story" on the page tells an ideological tale. Be very afraid! ISIS is coming to get you! But softie John Kerry doesn't think so. He wants ISIS to kill your children! Does the government fear freedom? Of course it does! The FCC wants to take the freedom to own the internet away from the Deserving Rich and the People-Corporations.
It's a delusional take on events, to be sure. No wonder Jon Stewart has been hacking them to pieces for years. They are the 180-degree opposite of The Daily Show. Where Stewart uses intelligent humor to reveal the truth and skewer the rich and powerful, Fox News dumbs down every story and fits it into their box. They don't actually need news stories - they just make stuff up to fit the required narrative of the rich and powerful.
Which is all well and good because a recent Frank Rich article puts Fox firmly in their place: at the fringe. Even though Fox numbers are the best in cable TV, it's still just a fraction of TV viewership overall when you include networks, and they're a big zero on the inter-web. The internet is increasingly where people get their news, and Fox isn't cutting it there.
So don't have a cow every time a Fox Personality says something outrageous. The people watching are true believers. They enter and exit with their minds made up. And their median viewer age is 68. 68!
I'm with Frank up to a point. Yes, the "news stories" on Fox are well understood to be propaganda. But the thing is, the Republican Party is run on these ideas. Leadership in both houses of Congress is Republican, meaning all the racism and science denial and fear mongering is what is running two thirds of the federal government (including the far-right Supreme Court).
So it matters that this warped perspective has a media organization. It matters what they say and think because that's what the federal government will say and think. If Fox News runs with "be afraid of ISIS" - be afraid our kids are going to be sent into another blood bath that has little to do with US interests, and zero to do with protecting Americans.
Now I'm depressed. I think I'll go read some more Fox News craziness to cheer myself up!
What's odd, actually, is that I read quite a lot of on-line news from different sources, usually following where the news aggregators wind blows me. So Fox News stories don't end up in aggregators. I wonder why?
Looking at the site is like reading a newspaper on acid. There's the laughing face of Hillary Clinton under the headline: "NO LAUGHING MATTER." It's a "news story" about Clinton accepting bad money from Algeria or something. Why did they match a laughing Hillary pic with this story? Are you kidding?
Every "news story" on the page tells an ideological tale. Be very afraid! ISIS is coming to get you! But softie John Kerry doesn't think so. He wants ISIS to kill your children! Does the government fear freedom? Of course it does! The FCC wants to take the freedom to own the internet away from the Deserving Rich and the People-Corporations.
It's a delusional take on events, to be sure. No wonder Jon Stewart has been hacking them to pieces for years. They are the 180-degree opposite of The Daily Show. Where Stewart uses intelligent humor to reveal the truth and skewer the rich and powerful, Fox News dumbs down every story and fits it into their box. They don't actually need news stories - they just make stuff up to fit the required narrative of the rich and powerful.
Which is all well and good because a recent Frank Rich article puts Fox firmly in their place: at the fringe. Even though Fox numbers are the best in cable TV, it's still just a fraction of TV viewership overall when you include networks, and they're a big zero on the inter-web. The internet is increasingly where people get their news, and Fox isn't cutting it there.
So don't have a cow every time a Fox Personality says something outrageous. The people watching are true believers. They enter and exit with their minds made up. And their median viewer age is 68. 68!
I'm with Frank up to a point. Yes, the "news stories" on Fox are well understood to be propaganda. But the thing is, the Republican Party is run on these ideas. Leadership in both houses of Congress is Republican, meaning all the racism and science denial and fear mongering is what is running two thirds of the federal government (including the far-right Supreme Court).
So it matters that this warped perspective has a media organization. It matters what they say and think because that's what the federal government will say and think. If Fox News runs with "be afraid of ISIS" - be afraid our kids are going to be sent into another blood bath that has little to do with US interests, and zero to do with protecting Americans.
Now I'm depressed. I think I'll go read some more Fox News craziness to cheer myself up!
posted by fiduciary at 11:54 AM
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